So I opened a maps website with 360 panoramic images and saw views like this:
Sunrise, shadows and fog. Just some aerostat took a photo and it’s beautiful. But I very rarely see aerial photos! There are so many landscape photographers, but they all shoot from their perspective. So why isn’t aerial photography as popular?
I post a good bit of aerial photos. I credit aerial photography with reigniting my interest in photography.
I don’t shoot aerial as much now as I did a few years ago though, primarily because I haven’t travelled much recently and I’ve grown bored of my current location.
Posting online quickly turns into a minefield also, with other drone operators debating the legality of my photos. I got kicked out of my local drone group because a member ripped photos from my website, and posted them to the group with the purpose of debating how high I was flying. They didn’t understand the concept of stitching photos in post, so they assumed that I was at least 1000ft up. I wasn’t, but this is the level of petty you have to deal with when it comes to the drone community.
As others have pointed out also, most aerial photos are mediocre because drone owners are simply satisfied by the perspective they are getting. Very few of them are editing these photos in post, and when they do, it’s not of the quality of someone who has a passion for photography.